Mimicry and imitation: Hybrid identities in Rushdie and Kureishi

Abstract

After 1950s, with the beginning of decolonization, new forms of migrations have emerged. These occurred either from the newly liberated colonies to the imperial centre or from the imperial centre to the newly liberated colonies. Causing a high degree of cultural interaction and clash, these population flows have created in-between spaces in which both the colonizer and the colonized enter into a serious dialogue for identity formation. The in-between space brings together crucial elements for the formation of the hybrid identity (past/present, tradition/modernity, localisation/globalisation). In the in-between space, hybridisation of the identity finds its medium in mimicry and imitation; the colonized takes the colonizer as his model and aspires to be like him. However, the colonized has to surpass his indigenous culture (although he cannot). On the other hand, in mimicry and imitation the colonizer is objectified and hence his subject position is threatened. This aspect of mimicry and imitation disturb the previous fixities of the subject and create an ambiguous in-between space for hybridisation of the identity. This study aims to analyse the inbetween spaces in Salman Rushdie’s The Midnight’s Children and Hanif Kureishi’s The Buddha of Suburbia in which the protagonists of the novels reflect the struggle for acquiring a hybrid identity through mimicry and imitation